Corostomir is a young man who was born and grew up in a coastal village in Scanmir on the north coast of Ellenesia. His father was a black-smith, and he loves the ocean with a passion. He tends towards being somewhat spiritual, but he is far from fanatically devout. He met Aderan as a boy, when the other boy intervened when some other children were bullying him, risking being bullied themselves. Since then, he and Aderan have been life-long friends and lovers of the ocean together. Their relationship is completely asexual and founded on platonic companionship, and they love and trust each other more than anything else in the world. For Corostomir, life is to live with Aderan – and the ocean – and it is the trust and commitment he and Aderan share towards each other that gave him the courage and freedom to challenge his religious prejudices and assumptions, and choose truth.

Corostomir – along with Aderan – entered the Valor Army from a mixture of motives, including defending the coastal villages from the pirates who occasionally prey on hard-working fishers, farmers, pearl divers, and so forth, and the fact that it is Valor Alliance policy to draft unmarried men, so they figured they might as well join ahead of time. Since all they care about is spending time together and swimming, they don’t have any need for luxuries and are content with a simple lifestyle and no special housing, as long as they have enough to eat.

Corostomir is the rider of the dragon Aglarath, a fiery, impulsive, and loyally fierce creature, whose egg he stumbled across while finding a place to take care of some bodily necessities in the woods of Elethri. When he falls through the portal onto the ocean world of Alaer, he is chosen to be dolphin-bonded by the pink dolphin Arlas, who wants a compassionate friend.

Corostomir is intuitive, but he really struggles with subterfuge and subtleties. He prefers to say what he means as plainly as possible. He is gentle and compassionate, and he is both deeply caring and what many people would perceive as irresponsible. He wants to give others the freedom to challenge their assumptions that his relationship with Aderan gave him, but he also just really wants to spend his life with Aderan, playing in the ocean with him (and, later, with Aglarath and Arlas). People tend to trust him and feel comfortable around him.

Corostomir is the main character in Kindred of the Sea, one of various Areaer Standalones.

Posts about Corostomir:

Portrait of Corostomir: Character Art for Kindred of the Sea